Fried green tomatoes

I recently bought my first cast iron skillet (finally!) and I had been trying to think of the perfect thing to break it in when the idea of fried green tomatoes came to me. It's such a southern dish that it just felt like the right choice (other than cornbread of course, but my skillet is way to big for cornbread unless I'm cooking for others too). I made mine on the spicy side and served them with sour cream and hot sauce, but feel free to adjust the seasonings however you'd like. If you want them smoky but not spicy some smoked paprika would be really nice in the bread crumbs.

Ingredients:

2 - 3 green tomatoes
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
5 or 6 good cracks of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

Slice your tomatoes horizontally in 1/4" to 1/2 inch slices. Pour your buttermilk into a small bowl (I used a teacup, which was the perfect size to dunk each slice) and, in a separate shallow dish, mix together your bread crumbs, flour, garlic, cayenne, salt, and pepper. One at a time, dunk a tomato fully under in buttermilk, then transfer to the breadcrumbs and coat completely. Repeat for each tomato. Heat your skillet (doesn't have to be cast iron) over medium heat and add oil and butter. When the butter is melted add your tomato slices and fry for 2-3 minutes, flip and fry 2-3 more minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and season with salt. Serve immediately (they really don't keep well).